Early life Albinus was born in
Hadrumetum,
Africa Province (
Sousse,
Tunisia) to an aristocratic Roman family. The unreliable
Historia Augusta claims his parents' names were Aurelia Messallina and Ceionius Postumus, along with other relatives mentioned in
Vita Albini. None of these names are considered likely to be accurate by modern historians. The text also claims that Clodius received the
cognomen Albinus because of the extraordinary whiteness of his complexion.
Career under Marcus Aurelius and Commodus Showing a disposition for military life, he entered the army when very young and served with distinction, especially in 175 during the rebellion of
Avidius Cassius against Emperor
Marcus Aurelius. His merit was acknowledged by the Emperor in two letters in which he calls Albinus an African, who resembled his countrymen but little, and who was praiseworthy for his military experience and the gravity of his character. The Emperor
Commodus gave Albinus a command in
Gallia Belgica and afterwards in
Britain. A false rumor having been spread that Commodus had died, Albinus denounced the man before his soldiers in Britain, calling Commodus a tyrant, and maintaining that it would be useful to the
Roman Empire to restore to the
Senate its ancient dignity and power. The Senate was very pleased with these sentiments, but not so the Emperor, who sent Junius Severus to relieve Albinus of his command. Despite this, Albinus kept his command until after the murders of Commodus and his successor
Pertinax in 193.
Alliance with Septimius Severus After Pertinax was
assassinated, the
praetorian prefect Aemilius Laetus and his men, who had arranged the murder, "sold" the imperial throne to wealthy senator
Didius Julianus, effectively crowning him emperor. A string of mutinies by the troops in the provinces, however, meant the next emperor was far from decided.
Pescennius Niger was proclaimed emperor by the legions in
Syria;
Septimius Severus by the troops in
Illyricum and
Pannonia; and Albinus by the armies in Britain and Gaul. In the civil war that followed, Albinus was initially allied with Septimius Severus, who had captured Rome. Albinus added the name Septimius to his own, and accepted the title of
Caesar from him; the two shared a
consulship in 194. Albinus remained effective ruler of much of the western part of the Empire, with support from three British legions and one Spanish. When Didius Julianus was put to death by order of the Senate, who dreaded the power of Septimius Severus, the latter turned his arms against Pescennius Niger. After the defeat and death of Niger in 194, and the complete discomfiture of his adherents, especially after the fall of
Byzantium in 196, Severus resolved to make himself the absolute master of the Roman Empire. Albinus, seeing the danger of his position, prepared for resistance. He narrowly escaped being assassinated by a messenger of Severus, after which he put himself at the head of his army, which is said to have consisted of 150,000 men. After a hard-fought battle, with 150,000 troops on both sides according to
Cassius Dio, Albinus was defeated and killed himself, or was captured and executed on the orders of Severus. Severus had his naked body laid out on the ground before him, so that he could ride his horse over it, in a final act of humiliation. Albinus' wife and two sons were initially pardoned by Severus, but he changed his mind almost immediately afterwards, for as the dead Albinus was beheaded, so were they. Albinus' headless body was thrown into the Rhône, together with the corpses of his murdered family. Severus sent his head to Rome as a warning to his supporters; with it he sent an insolent letter, in which he mocked the Senate for their loyalty to Albinus. The town of
Lugdunum was plundered, and the adherents of Albinus were cruelly persecuted by Severus. ==Personal life==